Hotel & Car Rental Updates, January part 2

Hotels

New Hyatt Regency Dallas to Open Next Month
The 342-room Hyatt Regency North Dallas/Richardson in Richardson’s telecom corridor will open in North Dallas in February.

Formerly the Richardson hotel, the property recently underwent an $8 million renovation and is getting another $6.4 million in enhancements before it opens. The 17-story hotel has state-of-the-art technology and sophisticated business and leisure facilities. It has 13,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, including the 7,800-square-foot Texas Ballroom. (Source: Hyatt press release)

Hotel Indigo in Brooklyn in 2010
One of the first Hotel Indigos in New York will is scheduled to open in Brooklyn in 2010.

The 164-room hotel, which will also have more than 15,000 square feet of retail space, will be n the Downtown Brooklyn area, which includes the New Fulton Mall and the Atlantic Yards projects, as well as a host of new construction and development in the residential, commercial and retail sectors. (Source: InterContinental Hotels press release).

Car Rental

Avis Launches Online Tools for Business Travelers
Avis Rent A Car has added a new function to its Where2 portable GPS navigation system.

Before picking up your rental car, you can go to myWhere2.com and save destination information found there, or anywhere else on the Web onto a memory card that can be transferred to the Where2 unit when you pick up their rental vehicle.

To use this, you must first download a plug-in available at Avis myWhere2 and create a bookmark to send addresses of places you want to visit to their personal SD card. Then you can use any Web site or tool to find an address or point of interest and save the addresses directly to your SD memory card, and then transfer that to your Where2 unit.

The Where2 site also features “Avis Quick City Guides.” (Source: Avis press release)

What 2008 Holds for Air Travel

Airline expert Terry Trippler has made his New Year’s predictions for air travel.

There will be fewer fare increases, but airlines will reduce the number of seats they offer at lower fares, meaning you’ll pay more.

A la carte ticketing will increase. That is, more airlines will charge for items such as soft drinks, checking bags, seat assignments and more.

More airlines will offer special coach seating, a la Northwest Airlines’ and United Airlines’s Premium Plus, which give better seats and more choice, for more money.

More airlines will experiment with in-flight internet service, for a fee.